Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Tracy Yardley!
Colors: Matt Herms
Before we get started, I want to point out our new colorist, Matt Herms! He pencilled for a couple previous issues, but his real talents lie in his colors. I pointed out before when Jason Jensen joined the team that his colors were much more dynamic and detailed than those of his predecessors, but Matt's colors are even more rich and deep than Jason's. My favorite effect, personally, is when he blurs the backgrounds in some panels that are centered around dialogue, giving an impression of a camera focusing on the characters. Anyway, onto the story: Jules and Bernie, concerned for Sonic's wellbeing, have gone to Chuck to find out where he's gone. Nicole shows up too and helps explain the situation with the star posts and the trip to Moebius, somewhat glossing over the fact that he's currently been stranded there by the actions of the Suppression Squad. While Nicole reassures the two that Sonic likely has the whole situation under control, in actuality he, Amy, and Scourge are all facing the insane wrath of Rosy, who's mostly focused her murderous intentions onto Scourge for now. Sonic asks Amy to check on Buns, stuck inside her wrecked Omega suit after losing her fight against Rosy from before.
Meanwhile inside the Eggdome, Eggman is working on his latest project, which is… yet another Metal Sonic. But of course. As you might expect, Snively is not impressed.
Pssh, still using email in the future, Snively? C'mon, the Eggnet has instant messaging capabilities, why not chat with "her" that way? Eggman gets Metal Sonic working, and Metal immediately determines that Sonic isn't on this planet before teleporting away in a flash to check other likely zones. Eggman, angry that Metal didn’t even wait for orders, begins once again erratically grumbling to himself, and Snively, clearly fed up, declares he'll return to his workstation, which of course we now know means he's about to go chat with his new online girlfriend. Meanwhile in Mercia, Rob informs Silver of where Sonic resides, and Silver pulls out a warp ring which he uses to take himself and Rob to Freedom HQ, where Sally is currently angrily calling the Suppression Squad out for trapping Sonic and Amy in Moebius. They're startled out of their argument by the arrival of the two other hedgehogs, who, after learning of Sonic's whereabouts, set up the warp ring once more.
But wait, it gets better! As Sonic and Scourge get ready to smash into one another in Moebius, suddenly a flash of light between them resolves itself into the figure of Shadow the Hedgehog, who is surprised to find himself here and not the Special Zone. Sonic explains the situation and then casually invites him to help kick Scourge's ass since he's already here, and Shadow, having nothing better to do, agrees. Then, Metal Sonic pops in to say hello, and finally, Rob and Silver arrive through the warp ring, just as Amy and Rosy run back to the quickly-growing group. What does all this mean, you ask? Well, the title should have given you a hint already - it's a grand battle of the hedgehogs, minus Silver, who has no goddamn idea what's going on!
This has got to be easily one of my favorite pages in the entire comic, I swear to god. Silver timidly tries asking various combatants about Sonic's whereabouts, not actually knowing what Sonic looks like, but they're all too busy beating each other's brains out to answer him. Finally, he gets fed up, and uses his psychokinetic powers to freeze them all in place, demanding they tell him which one of them is Sonic.
Rob immediately steps in to Sonic's defense, demanding Silver explain himself, and while Silver tries to tell Rob he'll thank him later, the fight starts back up anew. Silver explains that his future fell to ruins right around this time period due to the actions of a traitor within the Freedom Fighters, and that he'd figured the traitor was Sonic, since no one else really has the raw power that would let them destroy the world. Rob points out that making a guess like that based on very little evidence is kind of ridiculous, and that Sonic is renowned for being a hero far more than he's known for his power. Scourge then interrupts by punching the both of them into the ground while insulting them, including outright telling Rob his Moebius counterpart was murdered by his own brother some time ago, which is… pretty harsh, man. Sonic, battling Metal alongside Shadow, decides that enough is enough and the battle is going nowhere, so he yells for everyone to stop and proposes a new truce.
Oh, c'mon Scourge, you've hardly done anything to endear yourself to any one of these individuals. Scourge takes off running for the throne room, and manages to get his butt in the throne with Sonic and Shadow in hot pursuit. Sonic tries to force him to surrender as he's outnumbered, but Scourge arrogantly announces that that doesn't mean he's outgunned, as his throne is stocked full of… Anarchy Beryl. Sonic quickly puts together that this is this zone's version of Chaos Emeralds, and sure enough, Scourge takes on a dark purple hue with a black glow, having achieved his Super form and ready to win this fight single-handedly… But wait a second, just what do you mean, "Anarchy Beryl"? Hasn't it been established in previous issues that Moebius' main source of godlike power is also Chaos Emeralds? StH#44 comes to mind right off the bat, as O'Nux's Sunken Island was kept safe by the power of not just one, but six Chaos Emeralds, which seemed to be identical to Mobius' emeralds in pretty much every way from what we'd seen. I guess the most likely explanation is that Scourge, ever-determined to make Moebius into its own unique zone separate from that of Mobius, simply renamed the emeralds to "Anarchy Beryl" himself, but still, not even a cursory explanation, Ian? I suppose he must just be relying on older readers either forgetting or not caring about that little slice of continuity, despite his penchant for bringing back really old characters and concepts for use in new plotlines.
